The GQ+A: Fruitvale Station Director Ryan Coogler on Oscar Buzz and New Rocky Movie

If you haven&#x2019;t seen Fruitvale Station yet—the standout indie flick about BART shooting victim Oscar Grant that starred our Breakout of the Year—uh, watch it. Catch up tomorrow with the film&#x2019;s DVD release, ahead of this year&#x2019;s Academy Award nominations announcement on Thursday. Then, join us in crossing our fingers that it gets all the noms. We caught up with the film&#x2019;s director Ryan Coogler to talk Oscar buzz, recreating Grant&#x2019;s final day, and his latest project, Creed.

GQ: Let&#x2019;s go back to the beginning: How did you learn about Oscar Grant? When did you know you&#x2019;d want to retell his last day in a film?

Ryan Coogler: I was in the Bay Area when it happened—I heard about it, like, immediately. Filming crossed my mind, pretty much, right away. But being a filmmaker I think that that&#x2019;s relatively common—it&#x2019;s kind of how, as an artist, you contextualize through your art. The weeks following were really where the motivation materialized and I was seeing the push-pull of this character. I personalized it very much because, when I saw the video footage, he looked like me—he was wearing clothes like me, his friends looked like my friends, he was in a place that I had been. I didn&#x2019;t know Oscar but I felt, from watching the video, that I identified with him tremendously. And I knew there were people that didn&#x2019;t, that were affected by it but kind of reacted in different ways. His character got pushed-pulled in ways that I felt overshadowed the real essence of the tragedy and the real essence of the issue. I thought, Wouldn&#x2019;t a film be a great way to kind of bring the focus back on that? As opposed to these other things that are in the headlines, like, How much time is the cop going to get? Did he mean to do it? What kind guy was Oscar? Did he deserve it? These kinds of things were on the forefront as opposed to the fact that a 22-year-old human being lost his life and he&#x2019;s not going to be there for the people that he meant something to.

How much did you know about that final day?

Quite a bit—for the most part, it was really well covered in terms of other people being there, and video footage of what happened to him on the platform, from all kind of different angles. And because it was a criminal case, a public trial, I had access to testimonies from everybody—the cops, his friends, his family, witnesses on the train. I looked through thousands of pages of those documents.

Did you ever consider what role Fruitvale Station would play in this national conversation about racism, and racial profiling, in America?

I knew the film and the story had social relevance—like, I knew that just the story of what happened to Oscar happens to so many. So many young men in our country die through completely unnecessary gun violence. So yeah, I knew that Oscar&#x2019;s story was applicable to a much broader social context. What I was most interested in was just Oscar&#x2019;s story, and who he was. To me, Fruitvale is a domestic drama about this guy and his relationships.

Let&#x2019;s talk Creed—the Rocky spinoff movie you&#x2019;re working on about Apollo Creed&#x2019;s grandson—were you always a fan of the Rocky saga?

Yeah, well, my dad was a diehard Rocky fan. It&#x2019;s his favorite movie of all time, so I would watch them when I was young. My favorite is Rocky I. (My dad&#x2019;s favorite is Rocky II.) I just love the simplicity of it.

Is that something you&#x2019;re thinking about as you write the script for Creed?

This film is a very simple movie. I was an athlete myself for several years—I didn&#x2019;t box, I played football—and one thing that I miss about athletics is the simplicity of it. Granted, boxing is a very complex sport, but when you&#x2019;re an athlete and you are in the moment, there&#x2019;s really nothing more simple.

Have you given into the Oscar nomination buzz?

It&#x2019;s intense. I try not to focus on it too much, because it could be overwhelming both in a good way and in a difficult way. I&#x2019;m honored every time the film is mentioned.

What movie made the biggest impact on you this year?

I was really affected by two movies; they both have &#x201C;12&#x201D; in the title. Short Term 12, which is about a foster care center dealing with kids that have been that have gone through different types of abuse. And 12 Years A Slave—that really stuck with me. Watching the film and just thinking about the ramifications of what these people went through that we&#x2019;re still seeing today. And this idea of inheritance: What do you inherit from your ancestors?

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